And the Secret Ingredient - Recap

Caroline walks up to Oleg’s window and asks for a burger, the customer want’s it with Munster cheese, Max stops Caroline and tells her that they are out of Munster. Caroline asks, since when? Max tells her the diner opened in ’82, so they have been out of it for 29 years. Caroline apologizes to the customer but he is very arrogant. He complains that he wanted Munster but they just don’t have it. Max tells the man to go and talk to the principal because he is acting like a child. Caroline stops her and takes over, she again asks the man if he wants anything else as she hands him a menu, he tells her the menu sucks, he wanted Munster. Caroline can’t take him acting like a baby anymore; she replies, half yelling at him that she wanted to be running a fortune 500 company instead of waiting on winey man-children like himself. She then walks away. Max walks over to Earl at his counter and asks him if he has any fun plans for the evening. He tells her he is, “Just trying to NOT die in my sleep, Max; how bout you?” Both Max and Earl try not to laugh; Max scratches her head and tells Earl that they are going to visit Chestnut. The lady that takes care of her is able to give her everything. The girls are talking and a woman walks up and politely asks them for a tampon. Caroline looks but doesn’t have one, she gives the woman a quarter and directs her to the tampon machine in the ladies room.

Oleg rings his bell; he tells the girls that he couldn’t help but to overhear their problem. He has a tampon. Caroline asks him why he has a tampon, he replies “Same reason I have, lighter and don’t smoke. It’s good to be the hero.” The woman then comes out of the bathroom and asks if the girls have any more change, she only has the quarter that Caroline had given her and tampon’s cost .75 cents. Max can’t believe it, she walks into the bathroom sees the .75 cents, sign and exclaims, “WHAT!!!” She turns and hurries out of the bathroom to get Han. She brings him in and shows him the tampon machine. He is very uncomfortable. She is very upset at the price hike. Han walks up to Earl to get his opinion on whether it’s right to change the price, Earl tries to tell Han is it not a good idea to mess with something like that but Han believes it’s his right to charge whatever he wants for anything in his business. They tell him that he will be sorry and they’ll show him why it’s not a good idea to raise the price on something that people need like tampons.

At the grocery store Max and Caroline are shopping for supplies. Max walks over to the cupcake mix and tells Caroline they need to buy them. Caroline in disbelief; thought Max made homemade cupcakes. She didn’t know they were store bought. Max tells Caroline that she only uses it when she’s tired and she has a secret ingredient that makes them her own. The ladies go to the register to check out, the woman tells them the price, Caroline thinks it’s steep. The woman at the register tells her that she doesn’t control the prices. Max opens her purse and gives Caroline the coupons to give to the woman. Caroline doesn’t want to. Coupons scare her, she has already fallen as far as she can, she doesn’t want Max to make her use coupons. She doesn’t need any more proof that she is poor. The woman tells the girls that they owe her $70 dollars. Caroline reluctantly gives the woman the coupons and the new total comes to $12.40. Caroline is amazed that the price went from $70 dollars to $12 dollars.

At the apartment Max stands at the kitchen counter waiting for Caroline to get home, the door bursts open and Caroline bursts in with bags. She says she is sorry for being late but she had a coupon for pot pies so she got a lot of them and she is so proud of the way she is able to use coupons. “It’s like her first time, interning on Wall Street.” Caroline shows Max all of the coupons she had found to help out and she had one more thing in her bag that coupons helped her with, she was able to get a case of tampons. She hands them to Max, Max takes them and says; “Hang on Han Lee. I’m about to get my Tamp-on.”

At the diner Max waits behind the counter as Han walks out of the bathroom towards her. She stops Han and tells him she has to fill the straw holder up, she pulls out a handful of tampons and places them in there. Han gets uncomfortable and covers his eyes with his hand, “That is very inappropriate and does not belong in public.” Han refuses to even say the word “Tampon,” Max asks him how he can sell them if he can’t even say what they are. She goats him on, but he refuses. “Ding, ding, Tampon, tampon, Just say it.” Oleg chimes from his kitchen window. He tells her to take the tampons off of the counter and she refuses. Until he takes down the price. Caroline approaches Max and tells her excitedly that somebody had left a stack of newspapers on one of their booths and they were filled with coupons. Also that a few tables want their checks. Max says “OK.” And pulls out the checks. She begins to put tampons on the tray with the checks. Han notices and begins to yell. “Max, No! That is private,” but he is too late, “Here’s your check” Max says as she places the trays on the tables. “Max have you no shame?” Han asks. Max says “No” she then dedicates the entire diners periods to Han Lee for trying to take advantage of every woman in there, in need. Han embarrassed finally gets Max’s point and turns to change the price of tampons back to a quarter.

Back at the grocery store Caroline and Max have to use the coupons that night because they expire. Caroline is so excited to use them. In the store the girls see the “Williamsburg Coupon Queen” Caroline has to tell her how much of a fan she is. She tells her that it’s only her second day but she has been doing great and she figured out a way to get paid for buying things. The woman asks how Caroline had found coupons for cake mix; it was a hard coupon to come across. Caroline tells her it was in the circular the day before. The woman turns to her partner and mumbles to go and get the circular. She then begins throwing cake mix into her cart. The girls need 40 boxes otherwise they’re not free. Max and The Coupon Queen begin fighting over the cake mix as they both are throwing boxes into their carts. The woman then “body checks” Caroline, Caroline takes a step back and tells the woman not to do that again. She had met real queens and they would have never acted like this. The girls begin to push the woman’s cart away with their own. They push the woman and the woman pushes them back. This happens a few times before they push the woman and she moves back too far knocking her partner back and into the shelves behind him. The shelves contents fall on him ending with a single bag of flour falling on the man’s head. Max asks Caroline what to do? Caroline tells Max to walk away and pretend they have no idea what’s going on. The girls sneak away from the scene.

At the register Caroline is causing everybody to wait as she counts all of the boxes of cake mix. She picks up a blue box and tells Max she can’t have it; all of the cake mix has to be the same kind. Max tells Caroline that she needs it. Caroline says “No.” She can’t have it. Max explains that she needs it…It is the secret ingredient. Caroline still insists that Max take the mix back but Max doesn’t want to, she wants to go and see Chestnut. She can’t put it back because she doesn’t know how to make cupcakes from scratch, no-one ever taught her. No one taught her to cook or bake. Max leaves, and Caroline has to continue holding up the line because she has to go grab another box of mix. “Who’s the queen now?” The Coupon Queen yells; as Caroline walks by her.

At the stable Chestnut stands there with a coat on, Max walks over to the wall separating them and says hello. She opens the gate and walks in, “Look at you, in your fancy coat.” She feeds him the carrots that she had bought the day before. She begins to tell Chestnut that Caroline was not coming. Caroline then walks in and says “Hey.” She had gotten all the cake mix and the mix that Max wanted. She figures it must be hard for Max to do what she does, nobody had taught her either. Her secret ingredient wasn’t a spoonful of another cake mix. It was love. The girls have $644.25 saved for their cupcake business.